Takata airbag recall expanded after defect claims another life

Takata airbag recall expanded after defect claims another life

Posted By
Eliot Reiner

It is with regret that we confirm what some of our Sacramento readers may
have already heard in the news and it is that another person is reported
to have lost their life because of Takata's defective airbags. The
accident happened only a month before we wrote our post that talked about
a pending investigation into the defect. At the time only six deaths had
been linked to the product defect. Now, that count has risen to seven
and it is confirmed that the victim's family in this recent case has
filed a wrongful death lawsuit.

For those who didn't hear about the case, an article for the Claims
Journal indicates that the car involved in the accident had been on the
recall list, but the victim's family claim that they didn't receive
the later until two days after the crash. By then it was too late for
the driver who suffered a severed carotid artery, likely because of the
shrapnel released from the airbag during explosion.

Possibly in response to this recent accident, Toyota has announced that
it is expanding its recall to include 1.37 million more vehicles to account
for the deadly airbags. Honda is doing the same and added roughly 1.39
million to its expansive recall list as well.

As anyone who regularly reads our blog knows, the cost of a defective product
is not just measured in how much a manufacturer must pay out in compensation,
it's also measured in the number of lives it affects. From those who
become injured to the family members of those who have been killed by
it, a defective product can impact hundreds of thousands of lives if a
manufacturer does not address the problem quickly.

In the end though, many consider just one life lost to be too many, which
is why most seek legal representation and compensation from negligent
manufacturers after tragedies such as those that occurred because of the
defective Takata airbags.